1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to valve covers in general and utility shut off valves covers in particular.
2. Prior Art
Many valve covers exist in the prior art to prevent the unintentional or unauthorized opening or adjustment of valves. Examples include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,098 which discloses a valve cover which engages the external locking or bonnet nut of a valve assembly. While this valve cover works quite well in most applications, it falls short in valves that lack a locking nut. One common environment where external locking nuts are frequently absent are shut-off valves in utility lines.
Most gas and water lines have a shut off valve located at the curb. These shut off valves allow the utility owners and/or building owners to turn off the gas and water in the building. Utility companies may turn off gas and water when bills go unpaid or the building become unoccupied. A problem commonly faced by the utility companies are building occupants who turn the gas or water service back on. These may be persons living in the building who are simply unwilling or unable to pay their bills. However, of perhaps greater concern are persons squatting in vacant buildings. Squatters will often seek to restore gas and/or water service to a building where they have taken up residence. However, they are often unaware of problems that may exist with the gas or water lines in portions of a building they are not occupying, and even if aware, squatters have little ability or incentive to report such problems.
Thus, if there is a leak in a water line, the illicit restoration of water to an unoccupied building can result in very substantial damage to the building. Similarly, a leak in a gas line is a fire and explosion hazard in any building. Thus, an illicit restoration of gas service to a vacant building can lead to a particularly dangerous condition
Of course, anytime a utility line is opened surreptitiously, there is little chance of the utility company receiving payment for the water or gas used. Thus, unauthorized opening of service lines also represent a substantial loss of revenue to utility companies.
For all of the foregoing reasons, utility companies generally do more than simply close the shut off valves on their service lines. However, placing a lock on the shut off valve seems to invite occupants and squatters to attack the locking mechanism in an effort to overpower it. These efforts lead, not infrequently, to damage to the valve and/or utility line, such that a leak may then exist at the street level. Thus, most shut off valves are wholly contained units with no external locking nut that could serve as a point of leverage for someone attempting to overpower the locking mechanism.
The configuration of many shut off valves leads to a dearth of valve covers that can be used to secure the shut off valve. The lack of effective shut off valve covers and the risks associated with unauthorized utility restoration leads some utilities to sever and plug utility lines when they are turned off. Such measures are undesirable because they cost more to implement and more to reverse if utility service is restored in the future. Therefore, a valve cover meeting the following objectives is desired